The invention relates to the lubrication of a material, such as wire, rod, or tube prior to its entrance into a reduction die, and the cooling of the die during the reduction process.
In the cold or hot drawing of filamental material, such as rod, wire, or tube and the like in a continuous drawing operation, it is the common practice to apply a lubricant compound to the material prior to its entry into a reduction die. This is done by providing a container of lubricant and passing the material therethrough. When the drawing machine runs at a high range of speeds, the lubricant, being a dry granular soap compound, has a tendency to aggregate concentrically around and away from the material during its course of travel. In the art this is known as creating a "tunneling effect". During this "tunneling effect" contact between the lubricant and the material is prevented from being made, thus resulting in either a dry or an insufficient lubricated material entering the die. This can result into several undesirable conditions; i.e., an increase in friction, and therefore an increase in heat transferred to the material; excessive wear to the die, etc.
In order to alleviate the problems associated with a non-sufficient lubrication of the material, prior production attempts were to agitate the lubricant container so that the lubricant would make contact with and hopefully be evenly distributed along the surface of the material. This was done either by an external mechanical device attached to the container or by a workman manually agitating the material.
While in limited applications such attempts have realized some success, they have not been sufficiently dependable, efficient, nor effective, and are not capable of fully taking into account changes in speed and size of the material.
In the reduction process, heat is generated in the reduction die. In the past, cooling of the die has been done mainly by water. However, leaks in the system has resulted in inefficient cooling and also in unsightly, hazardous working area conditions.